From Shakespeare to Stoppard, writer Andrea Mullaney charts the influence of the playwrights who have lived, worked and written about the UK, and whose work is synonymous with UK theatre.
‘Not of an age but for all time.’ That was fellow playwright Ben Jonson’s verdict on William Shakespeare’s work after his death – but Jonson could not have known just how accurate his prediction would prove to be. There were certainly playwrights before Shakespeare and, even in his day, he was just one of a number of competing voices. Yet he is the one who has lasted and whose fame has spread throughout the world.
Today, nearly 400 years after his death, it’s impossible to speak about UK theatre without putting Shakespeare at its heart, and his 37 plays are still performed constantly both at home and abroad. The tales of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Macbeth are familiar even to those who have never seen the plays performed in a theatre.
These are quintessentially British plays and, for many people, Shakespeare is at the heart of UK culture. Indeed, he was recently voted the fifth greatest Briton of all time. But the plays themselves are hardly insular examinations of any one country or people. Drawing on stories from many lands and often set in exotic locations, they have a universal quality that has kept them alive. And where Shakespeare triumphs over his contemporaries is in the fact that his work can be interpreted in an almost unlimited number of ways, allowing them to be reinvented for each new generation.
Read the full article on Club UK (www.educationuk.org/clubuk/10/feat_madeinuk.html).